EDITORIAL -- A Foreign Policy SNAFU

Published
4:00 am PDT, Monday, August 7, 1995

SIMPLE MALADROITNESS might be the kindest description of the diplomatic screwup by the U.S. Defense Department that sent two military officers on an apparent spying mission to China just before Secretary of State Warren Christopher arrived for a touchy fence-mending mission during a period of especially rocky relations between Washington and Beijing.

Chinese officials said the two Air Force attaches were caught illegally photographing military exercises in a restricted area. The officers were expelled and returned to their base in Hong Kong on Thursday.

Whether the charges are true or mere posturing on the part of paranoid Chinese leaders remains an open question. But it appears that the Pentagon and the State Department are operating on different wavelengths in this delicate area. "The timing was incredibly bad, and someone should say why," under stated one senior administration official.

Christopher initially went through the roof over the incident, which happened just as he was trying to repair ragged relations with Beijing and to seek the release of human rights advocate Harry Wu, an American citizen who is being held by China on trumped-up espionage charges.

Later, Christopher sought to play down the episode, saying: "There's no reason why this incident should have an effect on the forward momentum in the relationship." He refused to say if a lack of coordination among U.S. government agencies had caused the alleged spying incident. In Washington, White House spokesman Michael D. McCurry took pains to avoid criticizing Beijing for ordering the expulsion, and he doubted there would be "negative repercussions" from the incident.

Maybe not, but Christopher's meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen -- decribed as "frank" -- produced no significant progress, and a request for Harry Wu's release was rejected.

With U.S.-China relations in the most fragile condition in years, the latest diplomatic SNAFU could not have come at a worse time.